Logitech Z906 Speaker System Review

Article Index

Introduction & Specification

It doesn't matter how hard your earphones pound your eardrums with cranium shaking noise, you can't truly call yourself a power user unless you're ticking off the neighbors and scaring the hell out of the dog with a surround sound setup that rattles the walls and punches copious amounts of bass. Without it, you might as well give your man-card away to someone who plans on fulfilling the requirements for membership in an illustrious club that demands everything be over the top.

Logitech's famed Z-5500 system fit the bill, and there are many who consider it to be the king of multimedia speakers. But a king's reign can only last so long before either being usurped, or passing the torch to a successor. In this case, it's the latter, with Logitech's new Z906 speaker system stepping up to the throne as the company's new flagship speaker-set. Like the Z-5500, the Z906 comes ready to tackle your entire entertainment center with enough inputs to accommodate up to six devices at once, including your TV, DVD, DVR, Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, iPod, and of course your PC or Mac. It has a Class-D amplifier, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS decoding, 500 watts (RMS) of power, and an 8-inch side-firing subwoofer to deliver the kind of thunderous bass you've come to expect from Logitech. But is it worthy of sitting on the throne once occupied by the Z-5500s? Let's turn the dial up and find out!

Going by the numbers, the Z906 has all the makings of a solid 5.1 setup for the living room or PC / game room. It's capable of pumping out 500 watts (RMS), with 165 watts going to the 8-inch, side-firing subwoofer. But what's really great about the Z906 -- and something we'll cover more closely on the following pages -- is how well it blends into an entertainment center. The stackable control console is compact and comes with a wireless remote, while the satellites are sleek looking with rubber strips on the bottom instead of speaker stands, making them easy to place.